A Cadillac for $50
Shortly after the turn of the millennium—let’s say 2002—I got something in the mail. It was not a personal letter but a commercial come-on. I ordinarily threw such pieces of mail in the circular file (the trash), but...
Sensitivity training at the McElroy Translation Company
For more than eight years, I was a self-employed writer. I somehow strung together several book projects which allowed me to pay the rent at my duplex in Travis Heights—but barely. In early 1998, I was visiting my CPA...
Spring break, 1972
I was a freshman at the University of Texas, and the one-week spring break was coming up. Some students went home to be with their families in Dallas or Houston, rich ones took skiing trips in Colorado or places more exotic, and others...
Scenes from a Hagwon: VII
Who is Avril Levigne? Heck if I knew until I read about the Canadian singer/songwriter in one of the LIKE textbooks. Kim Hee-Man, director of the Yongsan school, had written it himself and so it was part of the curriculum. He thought...
Scenes from a hagwon: VI
I am writing this nearly two years after the fact, so I have forgotten some of the details. I wish I could have forgotten all of them, for reasons that will soon be clear. First, permit me to set the scene. The Chilgok LIKE School where I...
Bubba Smith—ferocious football player and lovable thespian
He really did not want to talk. It was early in the morning in Los Angeles, and I was calling from Austin to do a telephone interview for my book about integration of Southwest Conference football. No, Bubba Smith was not too happy that day in...
Scenes from a hagwon: V
During the 14 months I taught at a pair of hagwons in Daegu, I had what seemed like thousands of children troop through my classrooms. There were all kinds of personalities, from painfully shy and introverted to bold and brash. None, though...
Martin Luther
While visiting my former home (Texas in the USA) in February 2011, I had a plan. I was going to purchase a lot of books and bring them back with me to Korea. I entered four Half-Price Books stores in Austin and Dallas, and after careful...
Scenes from a hagwon: IV
I really did not experience culture shock when I left Texas for Korea. I had been here once before (briefly in 1994) and had some idea what to expect. Furthermore, I was walking into a situation where my job and housing were already...